Rococo, Reason, and Revolution : The French Intellectual and Moral Response to Aristocratic Indulgence as Demonstrated Through Art

The entrapment of the aristocracy that King Louis XIV began at the Palace of Versailles in the late seventeenth century sparked a vast dislike among the nobility of classical baroque art. Since the French monarchy used this controlled style in order to symbolize the grip it held on the nation, aristocrats sought a new style that embodied freedom from Versailles and celebrated the upper class rather than the monarchy or the state. Because they possessed the most wealth in society at the time, their tastes dictated the direction of art, and, for a large portion of the eighteenth century, the new rococo style became the norm, embodying pastels, luxury, and romantic scenes. However, as industrialization took root in France in the nineteenth century, the bourgeoisie accumulated the most wealth, seized control of painting commissions, and thusly redirected popular art in France to suit their desires. French art during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century then reflected shifting sentiments among and between the classes, especially demonstrating a dislike for excesses as expressed in the rococo era; and these sentiments led to a condemnation of the aristocracy and its indulgences. As the middle-class gained power through knowledge (via Enlightenment thinking) and wealth (via industrialization), they suppressed the nobility and the monarchy and radically shifted art patronage to classicizing, moralizing works of art—the exact opposite of the rococo style

Evaluating quality of care in liver surgery:the Dutch Hepato Biliary Audit project

Clinical auditing has been described as evaluating clinical outcomes to improve outcomes and therewith to improve quality of care. Using clinical auditing, daily practice can be evaluated which can provide important information to improve the quality of care. In this thesis, data form the nationwide ‘Dutch Hepato Biliary Audit’ was used. This quality registry contains perioperative information concerning all patients in the Netherlands who underwent thermal ablation or resection of a liver tumour. The first studies using this nationwide quality registry focussing on surgical resection of liver tumours are described in this thesis. These studies demonstrate the current quality of care for patients with a liver tumour in the Netherlands and provide leads to measure hospital variation. We have shown that hospital variation regarding perioperative treatment strategies is present in the Netherlands. Furthermore, postoperative ouctomes after liver surgery in the Netherlands are comparable to current literature on this subject. The demonstrated techniques to evaluate hospital comparison may facilitate easier comparison of current perioperative treatment strategies and postoperative outcomes. The purpose of the studies in this thesis is to provide comparable quality of care to all patients with a liver tumour, independent of the hospital where treatment takes place. Furthermore, this thesis is a first step towards the improvement of quality of care for patients with a liver tumour in the Netherlands

Development and feasibility study of a teacher performance-based pay plan

The primary purpose of this study was to develop a turnkey model of a more comprehensive and accurate merit pay plan based on the total systems approach to teacher evaluation. This study reviewed the current incentive pay literature and validated the need, potential format, variables, and procedures for the development and implementation of the plan\u27s algorithms. Finally, this study examined the cost feasibility of the model in terms of teacher compensation using a California school district\u27s financial infrastructure;The review of literature substantiated three overwhelming reasons for the use of teacher performance-based pay plans: (1) to increase recruitment and holding power of the teacher work force; (2) to improve the professionalization of teaching; and (3) to provide a sound evaluation system and supporting procedures. These reasons were further supported by current effective schools research, the public\u27s request for school accountability, and the emphasis on school restructuring;The plan\u27s paradigm included three measurable components: the Supervisor\u27s Rating, the Student Achievement Factor, and the Student Feedback Report. The Supervisor\u27s Rating consisted of the formative observations and summative evaluation of the teacher\u27s performance based on pre-established criteria outlined in a Teacher Performance Indicator Bridge. This variable was based on the School Improvement Model (SIM) Project\u27s Teacher Performance Evaluation cycle and procedures. The Student Achievement Factor was based on the percent of a teacher\u27s students successfully meeting a pre-determined mastery level on a district developed criterion-referenced mastery test. This variable also considered the teacher\u27s class size, students\u27 attendance, transfers and behavioral concerns. The Student Feedback Report surveyed students\u27 perceptions of the teacher\u27s instructional skills using a valid and reliable questionnaire;The feasibility study applied the performance-based plan using a hypothetical school district\u27s staffing demographics and salary schedule. This demonstration provided an example of the cost feasibility of implemenation in terms of teacher compensation. The information was presented in a matrix format to demonstrate varying degrees of qualifying teachers and percents of salary. The findings indicated compensation awards were consistent with established incentive pay plans;Considering the limitations binding a non-statistical study, the major conclusion reached was the development of a cost-feasible and comprehensive performance-based pay plan

A test chip for automatic reliability measurements of interconnect vias

A test circuit for electromigration reliability measurements was designed and tested. The device under test (DUT) is a via-hole chain. The test circuit permits simultaneous measurements of a number of DUTs, and a fatal error of one DUT does not influence the measurement results of the other DUTs. Measurements require only a few measurement instruments. Comparing the measurement results of a single DUT io the measurement results of the test circuit shows that the test circuit may be used for reliability measurements

The Vegetarian Magazine September 1905

Periodical discussing the vegetarian lifestyle and recipes. Includes the regular column The Dining Room. Recipes include olive cream salad dressing, vegetable salad, uncooked prune butter, nut butter, and uncooked bread.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/foodiesguide-1890/1103/thumbnail.jp

Soft-prompt tuning to predict lung cancer using primary care free-text Dutch medical notes

We investigate different natural language processing (NLP) approaches based on contextualised word representations for the problem of early prediction of lung cancer using free-text patient medical notes of Dutch primary care physicians. Because lung cancer has a low prevalence in primary care, we also address the problem of classification under highly imbalanced classes. Specifically, we use large Transformer-based pretrained language models (PLMs) and investigate: 1) how \textit{soft prompt-tuning} -- an NLP technique used to adapt PLMs using small amounts of training data -- compares to standard model fine-tuning; 2) whether simpler static word embedding models (WEMs) can be more robust compared to PLMs in highly imbalanced settings; and 3) how models fare when trained on notes from a small number of patients. We find that 1) soft-prompt tuning is an efficient alternative to standard model fine-tuning; 2) PLMs show better discrimination but worse calibration compared to simpler static word embedding models as the classification problem becomes more imbalanced; and 3) results when training models on small number of patients are mixed and show no clear differences between PLMs and WEMs. All our code is available open source in \url{https://bitbucket.org/aumc-kik/prompt_tuning_cancer_prediction/}.Comment: A short version of this paper has been published at the 21st International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (AIME 2023

The Vegetarian Magazine May 1905

Periodical discussing the vegetarian lifestyle and recipes. Includes article entitle What is Food? discussing the best foods to eat when ill. Recipes include rice gruel, frothed eggs, plum porridge, and arrowroot gruel.https://knowledge.e.southern.edu/foodiesguide-1890/1086/thumbnail.jp

Drinkwater op de juiste plaats

Het welzijn van de melkkoe wordt steeds belangrijker. Een goede drinkwatervoorziening speelt hierin een belangrijke rol. De juiste plaats van de drinkbakken en de hoeveelheid drinkpunten zijn daarom van groot belang om de opname van drinkwater zo goedmogelijk te laten verlopen. Op de Waiboerhoeve wordt dit najaar een proef uitgevoerd om de juiste plaats en hoeveelheid te vinden voor het drinkwater